Warrior Hearts

With a natural warmth and charisma, Jenny speaks with evident pride for her famous daughter, Emilia, familiar to many thanks to her breakout role as Daenerys Targaryen in the fantasy series Game of Thrones. However, while many of us may be able to equate with parental pride, few of us have experienced the trauma of supporting a son or daughter through the devastating experience of a brain haemorrhage.

“I’ll never forget the first time it happened, the sense of meeting the surgeon after Emilia’s first life-saving treatment,” Jenny explains. “It was 3 am, but we still didn’t have a diagnosis, and we didn’t get one until the next day; it was such a long wait.” She continues, “There is such a sense of finality when you love someone and find yourself in that situation. I was looking for support where there was none and had to find it within myself. It’s a miracle she survived.”

Sharing Emilia’s Story

A staggering one in three of us will experience an acquired brain injury in our lifetime, from a concussion to a stroke, but there is very little information, which means support is in short supply. As Jenny explains, “We know so much about other illnesses, for example cancer, but we are so unprepared for when a brain injury happens – it’s like stepping into a black hole. Not enough people are championing brain health and there is a lack of professional experience and knowledge where it is vitally needed.” This is where SameYou is bridging that gap.

enny and Emilia launched the charity in 2019 to raise awareness of and support for survivors. As Jenny explains, “Emilia was at such an exciting point in her life and career, enjoying the success of ‘Game of Thrones’. She was fortunate to recover completely but thousands of people are less lucky.” She continues, “Many feel abandoned, struggling with their identity and the physical and emotional toll of a trauma, but no one should feel alone.”

Emilia’s story and profile may have given the charity a voice but the team has worked tirelessly to break down stigmas and support survivors who have so much to contribute to society. Encouraging people back into the workplace has been a key focus, and earlier this year the charity teamed up with ‘The Big Issue’ for a recruitment campaign, to give brain injury survivors and their carers an avenue back into work through training, help and advice. Educating on recovery is another area where SameYou is making a considerable impact. “When people are affected by a physical injury, they are often told they can’t recover,” Jenny explains. “But we know that having access to intense therapy as soon as possible shows you can. People need to know they can get better, but the healthcare system must provide the neurorehab facilities they need, and right now, it’s falling short.”

“When you suffer a brain injury, your life is saved by emergency medical services, but all too often ongoing recovery care can be hard to find, or it is simply unavailable.”

Emilia Clarke MBE

Providing life-changing research

While the charity is committed to raising funds to fill the gap in rehabilitation provision, research both in the UK and US, where Emilia suffered her haemorrhages, two years apart, remains vital. The charity launched a three-year study in Spaulding, Boston, to investigate resilience in young adults after a brain injury, and also partners with the University of Edinburgh to investigate the unmet needs of young adult survivors to enable new approaches. All of this activity has life-changing implications for survivors, but their families, carers and friends are also important to the charity, and Jenny is proud of their pioneering work with University College London, where Emilia was saved. “Personal experience has taught us that family and friends are all part of the terrible ripple effect of a brain injury. Our Neurorehabilitation Online programme ‘NROL’, provides a real-time therapy programme offering peer support for all. We treated over 400 people over a six-week programme, highlighting how critical this kind of care is.”

Clearly a passionate and driven campaigner, Jenny is extremely humble at the mention of the MBE that she, alongside Emilia, received earlier this year – the first mother-daughter duo to do so. “It was such a shock, just extraordinary, I couldn’t believe it,” she shares. “It was a magical day, just eight of us at Windsor Castle, very relaxed and William was wonderful.” Jenny continues, “The charity is all about giving a voice to others, and the recognition has helped bring us to a wider audience, which is what we always strive to do.” Speaking of plans for the charity’s future that determination shines through again. “We are working alongside Mt Sinai Hospital in the US to provide special ‘SameYou Recovery Sofas’ outside rehabilitation units, that can support talking therapies and recovery programmes. Friends and family members often have no idea how to support a loved one after a brain injury, and we want that to change.”